Microsoft announces a new set of integration with DropBox

Software giant, Microsoft has announced a new set of integrations with DropBox, aimed at offering more productivity and features while you are on the move.

It means you will now be able to work on documents, spreadsheets and presentations in real-time shared within Box and DropBox.

In February 2015, we announced the Cloud Storage Partner Program (CSPP) and enabled cloud storage providers to connect their services to Office Online and Office for iOS. Today, we’re making Office even easier for customers to use with cloud storage providers by adding real-time co-authoring with Office Online for documents stored in partner cloud services, extending our Office for iOS integration to all partners in the CSPP, and enabling integration between Outlook.com and cloud storage providers Dropbox and Box,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

These new set of integration added by Microsoft will now let DropBox users to edit documents at the same time with using Office Online. Co-workers or users will also be able to be more productive while working on a project at work or in the office. In order to be able to do this, all you need is to open a compatible file with Office Online via DropBox.com. As soon as the file you want to work on is open, you can start working on that particular file simultaneously and see what changes are being made in real-time. The new integration also allows all users to be able to make comments for chatting among themselves and any changes made are automatically saved in DropBox.

Another feature worthy of note is the Office for iOS, which now offers the same functionality with support for real-time co-editing directly from Box. Microsoft also added that the feature will be rolled out to other cloud providers in the near future, which include Edmodo, Egnyte and ShareFile.

“Starting today, in addition to Dropbox, we’re offering all CSPP partners the opportunity to tightly integrate with Office for iOS. This integration lets users designate these partner cloud services as “places” in Office, just as they can with Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox.”

The co-editing feature is not the only major attraction recently announced by Microsoft, the company also announced that Box and DropBox will soon be integrated with Outlook.com. What this means is that Outlook users will now be able to send attachments and saved files straight to DropBox, Box and OneDrive. However, the company is yet to announce the exact date when this will be available to users.

“In the coming weeks, users of the new Outlook.com can attach files from Dropbox, Box and OneDrive right from their inboxes and they have the option to send these files either as traditional attachments or as cloud-based links,” Microsoft’s corporate vice president for the Office team Kirk Koenigsbauer, wrote in a blog post.

Wednesday’s announcement by Microsoft marks a significant step towards making its Office app more open for customers and partners. The new features have also been included by Microsoft to make the app more accessible to its users who have been clamouring for more features.